Not That Sort of Girl

For the whole of Rose's respectable married life, she had kept faith with two men. To Ned she was a perfect wife, mother of his son, and elegant hostess of Slepe. To Mylo, Rose was an impetuous and unconventional mistress, answering his erratic and impassionate calls throughout 50 years of tactful duplicity. After Ned's funeral Rose looks back on a life of dual constancy, passion, humour, and the ambiguities of love - and chooses her future.

Part of the Furniture

Juno Marlowe hurries away from the thundering planes overhead, having just said goodbye to the two men she has always loved. She finds herself rescued by a stranger, frail and older than his years, who offers the protection of his house and a little more.

A Dubious Legacy

Henry Tillotson, a generous, genial man, rescues Margaret from a disastrous marriage in Egypt and brings her home to the West Country as his new wife. On the threshold she gives him a black eye and retires straight to bed where she remains, apart from the occasional malevolent outburst, for the rest of her life.

The Forsyte Saga (Dramatised)

The blockbuster BBC Radio 4 adaptation of John Galsworthy's classic family drama, featuring a star cast including Dirk Bogarde, Sir Michael Hordern, Diana Quick, Michael Williams and Amanda Redman. Galsworthy's epic story chronicles the decline and fall of the Forsytes through almost 50 years of material triumph, emotional disaster, and a terrible feud that splits them asunder.

Alan Bennett: Keeping On Keeping On: Diaries 2005-2014

Alan Bennett narrates the latest installment of his diaries, as heard on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Following on from Alan Bennett's best-selling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences. At its heart is his latest published collection of diaries.

I Capture the Castle

"I write this sitting at the kitchen sink" is the first line of a novel about love, sibling rivalry, and a bohemian existence in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Cassandra Mortmin's journal records her fadingly glamorous stepmother, her beautiful, wistful older sister, and the man to whom they owe both their isolation and poverty: Father. The author of one experimental novel, and a minor cause celebre, he has since suffered from writer's block and is determined to drag his family down with him.

The Light Years: Cazalet Chronicle, Volume 1

The tangled lives of three generations evoke a vanished world in this, the first volume of the Cazalet Chronicle. Home Place, Sussex, 1937. The English family at home.... For two unforgettable summers they gathered together, safe from the advancing storm clouds of war. In the heart of the Sussex countryside these were still sunlit days of childish games, lavish family meals and picnics on the beach.

Wives and Daughters

Molly Gibson lost her mother when she was a child. Any stepmother would have been a shock, but the new Mrs Gibson is a self-absorbed, silly little widow, and Molly's unhappiness is compounded by the realisation that her father has come to regret his second marriage.

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s, when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's now legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.

Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters

They were known as the Mitford sisters: Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah. Born into country-house privilege in the early years of the 20th century, they became prominent as 'bright young things' in the high society of interwar London. Then, as the shadows crept over 1930s Europe, the stark - and very public - differences in their outlooks came to symbolize the political polarities of a dangerous decade.

Katherine: The classic historical romance

Katherine comes to the court of Edward III at the age of 15. The naïve convent-educated orphan of a penniless knight is dazzled by the jousts and the entertainments of court. Nevertheless, Katherine is beautiful, and she turns the head of the King's favourite son John of Gaunt. But he is married, and she is soon to be betrothed. A few years later their paths cross again and this time their passion for each other cannot be denied or suppressed.

Jumping the Queue

Matilda Poliport, recently widowed, has decided to End It All. But her meticulously planned bid for graceful oblivion is foiled, and when she later foils the suicide attempt of another lost soul - Hugh Warner, on the run from the police - life begins again for both. But life also begins to throw up nasty secrets and some awkward questions: just what was Matilda's husband Tom doing in Paris?

Whose Body?: Lord Peter Wimsey: Book 1

It was the body of a tall stout man. On his dead face, a handsome pair of gold pince-nez mocked death with grotesque elegance. The body wore nothing else.Lord Peter Wimsey knew immediately what the corpse was supposed to be. His problem was to find out whose body had found its way into Mr Alfred Thipps' Battersea bathroom.

The Cazalets: The Light Years (Dramatised)

As the Cazalet family gathers for their annual summer holiday, the onset of war is about to change everything. In the hot summer of 1938, siblings Hugh, Edward, Rupert and Rachel - and their respective families - are reunited at Home Place, in the beautiful Sussex countryside.

Rebecca's Tale

April 1951. It is twenty years since the death of Rebecca, the beautiful first wife of Maxim de Winter. It is twenty years since the inquest, which famously - and controversially - passed a verdict of suicide. Twenty years since Manderley, the de Winters' ancient family seat, was razed to the ground. But Rebecca's tale is just beginning... This is Sally Beauman's companion to Daphne du Maurier's classic tale, Rebecca.

Brideshead Revisited

The wellsprings of desire and the impediments to love come brilliantly into focus in Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece - a novel that immerses us in the glittering and seductive world of English aristocracy in the waning days of the empire. Through the story of Charles Ryder's entanglement with the Flytes, a great Catholic family, Evelyn Waugh charts the passing of the privileged world he knew in his own youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities.

First read this after seeing the Channel 4 adaptation in early 90s and loved it. It was a welcome refresher to listen to this audiobook presentation - the narrator was excellent at giving the cast of characters different voices. The characters themselves are likeably dislikeable on occasion, and the story can be quite brittle at times but ultimately is very compelling. Definitely recommended!

I really loved this story. It has been filmed by the BBC but there are some parts that had to be changed or omitted. You wouldn't know that this detracts from the story until, like me you read it yourself or have it read to you. It is warm, humorous, sad and incredibly moving. I am thankful that I was not born until after the war but these characters and their stories made me wish I had been there - and isn't that what a good story is all about?

I have recommended this book to my mum already - we both like fiction set in the early twentieth century and had both enjoyed the channel 4 television series, which was very true to the novel.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Camomile Lawn?

A conversation between Helena and her sister in law - talking about marriage and relationships, it symbolised the pragmatism that underlined the actions of all the characters in the novel (apart perhaps from Oliver) when faced with the massive disruption of the war.

What about Carole Boyd’s performance did you like?

Carole Boyd's narration had the right accents and tone for the middle class characters. Her narration was unobtrusive and didn't have any jarring moments of misread words or phrases.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book left me feeling great respect for most of the characters and in particular the author - I felt impelled to go and research her life which sounds more fascinating than those of her fictional creations.

What made the experience of listening to The Camomile Lawn the most enjoyable?

I read this book many years ago and found Mary Wesley's writing both engaging and enjoyable. To have this book 'read to me' has made it an even more enjoyable experience in that the characters have really come to life and its given me a better understanding of the story and it's descriptions of a time in British history; early 20th Century. The class differences of the time are clearly defined and the central, well heeled, family appreared to have no idea of real hardships happening to ordinary folk. I'm still not sure whether I actually like the family but overall the story is enjoyable.

What other book might you compare The Camomile Lawn to, and why?

A Woman's Age by Rachel Billington

What about Carole Boyd’s performance did you like?

Carole Boyd's performance is excellent. She has created different voices for each character and never lapses or forgets them.

I am already a fan of Mary Wesley and have read The Camomile Lawn with pleasure. The characters are drawn with care over the length of the narrative - slowly emerging in their complexity and humanity. Carole Boyd's telling of the tale adds to the experience. She is able to give each player a distinctive voice and maintains this throughout. The result is a warm and sympathetic interpretation which misses none of the nuanced subtlety of the wriiten word. I loved it.

As Helena Cuthbertson, known as Aunt Helena, and her niece by marriage Polly make their way separately to the funerals of Max Erstweiler, a German Jewish musician who had made England his home since WWII, they both reminisce about their family stories. These involve the pre-war games of a gaggle of cousins, including gorgeous Calypso Cuthbertson, who wanted only to be rich and didn't know how to love, Oliver Anstey who wanted only to have Calypso to himself but alas, was not rich, Sophy, who as the youngest, and living with aunt Helena and uncle Richard, only knew good times when her cousins were about, Walter Cuthbertson, Polly's brother who also loved Calypso, but knew better than to declare himself, and a pair of twins, the local vicar's sons. And of course, uncle Richard, who defines himself by his lost leg, sacrificed during the Great War and Aunt Helena, who only discovered love when she began her extra-marital affair with the ever unfaithful Max Erstweiler, while Richard naturally took up with Max's wife, Monika. The Camomile Lawn of the story is one of the most charming features of Aunt Helena's house in Cornwall where all the cousins share their favourite fond memories. I truly loved this story and once again enjoyed Wesley's wonderful prose, but perhaps having such a large cast of characters made it more difficult for me to keep track of the goings on and form an attachment to any one of the characters. All the same, a terrific family saga mostly set in the England of the Second World War. Carole Boyd's narration makes an already great novel that much more pleasant to listen to.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

MS D L JENNER

Toowoomba, QLD Australia

19/11/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Not so Great Second Time Round"

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

It was OK. When I read this for the first time in the 1990's I loved it. Coming back to listen I wasn't so sure. Many of the characters just weren't very nice and I didn't much care what happened to them.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

A little difficult to say as this was my second time with The Chamomile Lawn. It was, I would say, predictable.

What about Carole Boyd’s performance did you like?

It was good. She created individual characters and caught their personalities well.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I'm sure I saw the mini-series!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.